TRAGER APPROACH: Massage Bodywork Dictionary on TRAGER APPROACH

TRAGER APPROACH

Trager is an approach to bodywork developed in the 1920s by American medical practitioner Dr. Milton Trager. It makes extensive use of touch-contact and encourages the client to experience the freeing-up of different parts of the body.

The approach consists of simple exercises called Mentastics and deep, nonintrusive hands-on work, including fluid, gentle, rocking movements. The idea is to use motion in the muscles and joints to produce positive sensory feelings that are then fed back into the central nervous system. The result is a feeling of lightness, freedom, and flexibility.

A Trager session takes from 1 to 11?2 hours. No oils or lotions are used. The client wears a swimsuit or underwear and lies on a well-padded table in a warm, comfortable environment. No long, broad strokes are used over the surface of the body and, unlike various techniques of deep tissue manipulation, it does not utilize extreme pressure or rapid thrusts to create structural change and does not produce pain as a necessary adjunct to its effectiveness.

During the session, the practitioner makes touch-contact with the client in such a gentle and rhythmic way that the person lying passively on the table actually experiences the possibility of being able to move each part of the body freely, effortlessly, and gracefully on their own.

The practitioner works in a relaxed, meditative state of consciousness. This allows the practitioner to connect deeply with the recipient in an unforced way, to remain continually aware of the slightest responses, and to work efficiently without fatigue. After getting up from the table, the client is given instruction in the use of Mentastics, a system of simple, effortless movement sequences to maintain and enhance the sense of lightness, freedom, and flexibility instilled by the table work.

Mentastics is Dr. Trager’s coinage for “mental gymnastics” - a mindfulness in motion - designed to help clients re-create for themselves the sensory feelings produced by the motion of their tissue in the practitioner’s hands. It is a powerful means of teaching the client to recall the pleasurable sensory state that produced positive tissue change. Because it is this feeling state that triggered positive tissue response in the first place, every time the feeling is clearly recalled the changes deepen, become more permanent, and are more receptive to further positive change.

Changes described have included the disappearance of specific symptoms, discomforts, or pains, heightened levels of energy and vitality, more effortless posture and carriage, greater joint mobility, deeper states of relaxation than were previously possible, and a new ease in daily activities.

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For more articles on TRAGER APPROACH , see: : TRAGER APPROACH , Alternative Health, Massage, Bodywork, Body Mind and Soul)

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The definition and meaning of TRAGER APPROACH is extracted from the home page of Associated Bodywork and Massage Professionals.

" MassageTherapy.com is a property of Associated Bodywork and Massage Professionals (ABMP), an organization serving the massage, bodywork, somatic and esthetic professions. Established in 1987, ABMP is comprised of more than 40,000 practitioners across the nation and in Canada. As a condition of membership, ABMP verifies that practitioners have graduated from a recognized training program and obtained any state licensure required. All ABMP members are also required to follow an established code of ethics.

Massage, bodywork, and somatic therapies are often complex mixtures of holistic healing practices involving physical, emotional and spiritual components. The definitions that follow provide only brief explanations of many of the techniques currently in practice.."

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